The long-term objective of this project is the elimination of the hazard created when nursing staff manually lift patients. To achieve this, an innovative patient-handling device has been developed for lifting, weighing and transporting patients. It consists of a stretcher, an electro-mechanical lifting apparatus, a precision scale, and the unique ability to become narrow to fit through doors, and become wide to fit over hospital beds. Features include a privacy curtain, recessed intravenous pump brackets, oxygen, suction, intubation and other emergency equipment. Specific aims of the project are testing and evaluating 48 devices in 12 hospitals for one year and to demonstrate the feasibility of eliminating most manual patient lifting. During Phase I of this SBIR grant, a prototype was constructed and tested with nursing students. Phase II will extend testing to a nation wide sampling of hospitals. The staff who will be using the equipment will receive training and they will be asked to serve as evaluators of the training and the device. Data for determining component reliability will be obtained, and product safety analyses will be completed. Absenteeism and other statistics due to manual lifting will be compared. Independent consultants will develop the evaluation instruments and analyze the results.